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“I’ll be there in an hour.”
She mumbled something, but I was already hanging up. There was no way I could take Eli with me. He didn’t need to see his mom like that. Ever. And with Mellie out of town, my options were limited.
Scrolling through my contacts, I picked the lesser of two evils.
CHAPTER11
BECCA
Evan opened the door,a grim expression plastered on his face. “I’m sorry. My neighbor had to leave town for a while.”
“She did? What will you do?”
He shrugged, and something flickered in my chest. From what I gathered, they had no one else, which meant it all fell to Evan. “We’ll figure something out,” he said.
“Becca,” Eli shrieked as he skidded across the floor to me. “What’s cookin’, goods lookin’?” He catapulted himself at me, one of his chubby arms landing right on my bruise. I winced but quickly covered it with a strained laugh.
Evan’s eyes narrowed on me, and for a second, I thought he’d seen the flash of pain on my face. But when he scooped Eli up in his arms and said, “Where’d you hear that, buddy?” I figured I’d had a lucky escape.
Eli pressed his lips into a flat line and shook his head.
“Fine. I guess I’ll just have to tickle it out of you.”
Squeals of delight filled the room, and I smiled as I watched the two of them. It was impossible not to. The sight of them goofing around made my heart ache for the Porter brothers, and for Evan and me. He caught my eye across the room. I should have looked away, but I didn’t. Instead, I held his gaze, pouring everything I felt into it. The hurt, the pain… the confusion. Then in true Eli style, the little guy stole the show by shrieking, “I surrenders, I surrenders.” It came out garbled through all the tears and laughter, and the moment between Evan and me passed.
Maybe that was all we were now—fleeting moments and stolen glances.
“Okay, okay.” Evan swung Eli down and helped him regain his balance. “But I’ll get it out of you later, buddy.”
Eli giggled.
“So Becca’s going to watch you for an hour while I go get Mom, okay?”
“Where is she?” he asked so innocently, and I saw the flash of despair in Evan’s eyes.
“She’s… uh, she’s at work. They opened real early, and she had to go in and help out, okay?”
He shrugged his shoulders and came over to me. “It’s cool. Me and Becca have club stuff to do.”
“We do?” I crouched down to him. “And what exactly does this club stuff involve?”
“You’ll see.” He flashed me a smile that had me smiling back.
“Sounds good. Has he had breakfast?” I turned my attention to Evan, and he shook his head. “No problem,” I said. “We can rustle something up. Right, buddy?”
Eli nodded, but he was too busy watching whatever was playing on the television behind me.
“Go. He’ll be fine.”
Evan’s eyes were no longer trained on me. They were watching the little boy beside me. “I won’t be long. It means bringing her back here. Is that…” He ran a hand over his head and down his neck. “Is that okay?”
“Go,” I urged. If he kept asking, there was every chance I’d change my mind. I was in no rush to meet Ellen again, not after last time, but I was here for Eli.
Evan grabbed his keys and headed out, and I checked the refrigerator for supplies. “Eli, do you like pancakes?”
“Can I have them with ice cream?”
“Nope. No ice cream. It’s breakfast, buddy.”
